Tidbits
Agroconsult sees Brazil’s bean crop at 153.8 mil mts, down from 158.8 in December (USDA 157).
Panama Canal officials announced they will reduce the daily number of vessels allowed to transit the 50 mile long canal to 24, down from the average of 36 this time last year.
Each vessel requires an average of 50 million gallons of fresh water from Gatun Lake on the high ground to feed locks on both sides of the Continental Divide.
The Canal opened in 1914 with two sets of locks 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long. An expansion project completed in 2016 added a third set of locks which are 250 feet wide and 2,500 feet long to accommodate Cape Freighters, the largest ships on the High Seas.
US weekly new unemployment claims were 187,000 for last week. That is the lowest since September 2022. Where is that recession?
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate drops to 6.6%, the lowest since May 2023.